Picking Up Kenny Rogers

The following post was originally published on February 9th, 2012, as part of the original Retro Week. It fits nicely with our celebration of the 1996 Yankees, so I’m re-posting it now, unabridged. Enjoy.

(Cataffo/NY Daily News)

The Yankees have had a number of pitching contracts go bad for them over the years, but few went as poorly as Kenny Rogers. They signed the southpaw to a four-year, $20M contract after the 1995 season, pairing him with Jimmy Key, David Cone, and Andy Pettitte. It didn’t work out of course; Rogers pitched to a 5.11 ERA in 52 starts, nine relief appearances, and 324 innings in pinstripes before being traded to the Athletics for Scott Brosius after the 1997 season.

Rogers did get a ring out of his time in New York, though it was no thanks to him. He put 20 men on base in seven playoff innings across three starts in 1996, allowing eleven runs. Despite that, the Yankees won all three of his starts because the rest of the team picked him up. Just how did they do it? Let’s recap…

ALDS Game Four @ Rangers (box)
Although this was Rogers’ first career postseason start, he did make his playoff debut in relief during Game Two a few days earlier. The Yankees and Rangers were tied at four in the 12th inning when Texas put men on the corners with two outs against Graeme Lloyd and Jeff Nelson. Then-manager Joe Torre brought Rogers out of the bullpen to face the lefty swinging Will Clark, and he promptly walked him on four pitches. Brian Boehringer then came in to clean up the mess.

The Yankees were leading the best-of-five ALDS two games to one when Kenny got the ball in Game Four, back home where he started his career in Texas. He managed to pitch around a Pudge Rodriguez single and a Juan Gonzalez walk in the first, but Dean Palmer opened the second with a double to right-center. Mickey Tettleton singled him in, though he was erased at second when Mark McLemore beat out a double play ball. McLemore came around to score on Pudge’s single later in the inning. Rogers needed 40 pitches to put six men on base and allow two runs in the first two innings. Torre had seen enough, and that was the end of his day.

Boehringer replaced Rogers in the third and made things slightly more difficult. Juan Gone led off with a homer, then McLemore singled in another run a few batters later. Down four-zip, the offense started to chip away. Four of the first five batters in the top of the fourth reached base, with Cecil Fielder and Mariano Duncan each singling in a run. Bobby Witt had been chased from the game, but Derek Jeter drove in the third run with a ground ball off Danny Patterson. Boehringer started the fourth, but allowed the first two batters to reach base. David Weathers replaced him, and got out of the jam with a strikeout and a double play.

Bernie Williams tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fifth, and the score stayed that way until the seventh. Weathers had retired eight of the nine men he faced, throwing a full three innings thanks to the double play. Fielder singled in the go ahead run off Roger Pavlik in the top of the seventh, then it was Sandman time. Mariano Rivera threw a perfect seventh and a scoreless eighth (he did walk Warren Newson, however) while Bernie padded the lead with a solo homer in the ninth. John Wetteland slammed the door for the save, giving the Yankees the series win. The bullpen, particularly Weathers, stepped up to keep the Rangers at bay so the offense could mount a comeback after Rogers’ short start.

ALCS Game Four @ Orioles (box)
Up two games to one in the best-of-seven series, Rogers got the ball in Baltimore with a chance to give the Yankees a commanding lead or let the Orioles back into the series. Bernie gave him some breathing room with a two-run homer in the top of the first, but Kenny wasn’t having any of that. He walked Brady Anderson to open the bottom of the first, then Todd Zeile singled to put men on the corners. Rafael Palmeiro cut the lead in half with a sac fly.

(AP)

Darryl Strawberry took Rocky Coppinger deep to open the second, and Rogers managed to throw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half. The Yankees went down in order in the third, but Chris Hoiles led off the bottom half with a solo shot to make it 3-2. Rogers allowed three of the first four men he faced to reach base in the third, but he danced around trouble with a strikeout and a ground ball. Paul O’Neill’s two-run homer made it 5-2, but Rogers was intent on giving it back. He walked Cal Ripken Jr. to open the fourth, then moved him to second with a wild pitch. Pete Incaviglia singled to put men on the corners with none out, and out of the dugout came Torre with the hook. Rogers put seven men on base and threw 72 pitches in three innings plus two batters.

Weathers came in to clean up the mess, but he didn’t do the job. B.J. Surhoff singled in Ripken, then Hoiles plated a run with a ground ball. Once again, it was a one-run game. Two more ground balls ended the inning. The Yankees and O’s traded zeroes for the next three innings with Weathers, Lloyd, and Rivera each doing the job on the mound. The offense broke it open with a three-run eighth inning thanks to Fielder’s run-scoring ground out and Strawberry’s two-run homer. Rivera loaded the bases on three singles to open the bottom of the inning, but he struck out Hoiles and Anderson before getting Zeile to popup on the infield to dance out of danger. Wetteland again closed the door in the ninth to give New York a 3-1 series lead. The bullpen completely shut the door after Weathers allowed the two inherited runners to score, and the lineup simply out-slugged the O’s the rest of the way.

World Series Game Four @ Braves (box)
Unlike the previous two rounds, the Yankees were down two games to one in the series when Rogers got the ball for Game Four in Atlanta. The Braves blew the Yankees out in Game One and shut them out in Game Two, but David Cone got them back in the series with a big Game Three performance. Rogers was intent on keeping the Yankees out of it, it seemed.

The first inning and top of the second went by without a baserunner, but Fred McGriff changed all that with a homer to lead off the second. Rogers then walked Javy Lopez. And then he walked Andruw Jones. Then Jermaine Dye hit a fly ball to right that moved Lopez to third. Jeff Blauser pushed a run across with a bunt single, then pitcher Denny Neagle sac bunted the runners to second and third. Both came around to score on Marquis Grissom’s double to center. Just like that, it was four-zip Atlanta.

Rogers escaped the inning with a ground ball, but Chipper Jones and McGriff opened the third with singles. That was the end of Kenny’s day. Joe Torre replaced him with Boehringer, after he’d surrender four runs on seven baserunners and 52 pitches in two innings plus two batters. Boehringer allowed one of the runners to score on a sac fly before retiring the next two hitters. Three innings into the game, the Yankees were down 5-0.

Neagle was carving the Yankees up, so the score remained 5-0 into the fifth inning after Boehringer mixed in a perfect bottom of the fourth. Boehringer was pinch-hit for in the top of the fifth, which brought Weathers to mound in the bottom half. He struck out Mark Lemke but walked Chipper and balked him to second. The Crime Dog was put on first base intentionally, but Andruw doubled in a run after Lopez struck out. Down 6-0 in the game and 2-1 in the series, the Yankees had four innings to make a comeback.

It all started in the very next half inning with an innocent little leadoff single to right by Jeter. Bernie followed with a walk to put two men on, then Fielder drove in both guys with a single and some help from Dye’s error. Charlie Hayes followed that with a single to drive in Fielder. Just like that, the Yankees had cut the lead in half and chased Neagle from the game. The Yankees couldn’t do any more damage that inning even though Torre emptied his bench, pinch-hitting Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez for Joe Girardi and Weathers. That forced Jim Leyritz into the game at catcher.

Jeff Nelson came out of the bullpen to replace Weathers and threw a perfect sixth. Mike Bielecki was the third and final pitcher Braves manager Bobby Cox used in the sixth, and he stayed on to throw a scoreless seventh. Nelson went back out for his second inning, and tossed up another zero while pitching around a McGriff walk. Cox went for the kill in the eighth, bringing in hard-throwing closer Mark Wohlers for the two-inning save.

It all started with a swinging bunt, a dinky little chopper from Hayes that hugged to third base line to open the eighth. Strawberry singled into the 5.5-hole to put two men on with none out. Duncan followed up with a ground ball, but Atlanta was only able to get the force at second when Rafael Belliard booted the double play ball. That brought Leyritz to the plate, and that’s when this happened…

Tie game. Rogers was officially off the hook. Rivera, Wohlers, and Lloyd pitched the game into the tenth inning, and the Yankees eventually won when Steve Avery loaded the bases with a walk, a single, and an intentional walk. Pinch-hitter Wade Boggs drove in the go-ahead run when Avery walked his third batter in his last four tries. An error allowed the Yankees to tack on an insurance run, and Wetteland close the door in the bottom half to knot the series up at two. The rest, as they say, is history.

* * *

It took pretty much everything the Yankees had to survive Rogers’ three awful postseason starts (and one awful relief appearance). The offense had to combine timely hits with brute power, the bullpen had to soak up a ton of innings with little wiggle room, and even lady luck had to show her pretty face from time to time. Rogers put the club in some serious holes, but the Yankees always managed to climb out of them. It still blows my mind.

Just the mention of his name still makes me angry. I hated him as much as just about any Yankee I’ve ever seen play. It didn’t help any that he’s also a complete dick or that he had a solid career after being traded. But hey, if he had pitched well, we wouldn’t have gotten all those awesome heroics from more likeable Yanks.

Comrade Al

It was Game 4 of the WS, not Game 5. The latter was Pettitte’s 1-0 gem.

Andrew

Hate this guy with a passion. Between his horrible time as a Yankee and that nonsense performance in the 2006 playoffs when he was in Detroit (with enough magic pine tar and lame fist-pumps to go around), this is one of my least favorite pitchers from the 90s-mid 2000s. The fact that he came off as a class-A jackass off the field also makes it that much easier to dislike him.

Comrade Al

+1

http://www.pinstripealley.com Andrew GM

I’m fairly certain I remember reading that pulling Rogers early in Game 4 of the ALDS was suggested by Don Zimmer, who cautioned Torre that it’s never too early to try to save the game when you’re in the playoffs. Rogers clearly showed that he didn’t have anything that day and it would have likely been futile hoping for improvement.

Kevin

To this day, it makes me puke that Rogers has a ring while Mussina,Boone and MErcer don’t.

https://twitter.com/Mattpat11 Matt DiBari

Agree on Mussina and Murcer.

I have little opinion either way on Aaron Boone.

Seemed to be a nice guy, but there were alot of nice guys without a ring.

http://jukeofurl.wordpress.com Juke Early

The RAB staff has got to be the hardest working copy writers in MLB single team coverage. AND Kenny “Chickensh*t” Rogers? I think the others have said it all.

Robinson Tilapia

In a Howard Stern-like game of “F, Marry, Kill” featuring the following choices, what would you do?

Kenny Rogers
Kevin Brown
Carl Pavano

http://www.twitter.com/jordansmed JGS

And all that is still better postseason memories than Mets fans have of him.

Forcing a one-game playoff with the Reds, winning that, winning the NLDS on a walkoff homer, rematch with Atlanta, the ridiculousness that was this game, only to end the season with three consecutive walks?

And yea, I’m still bitter about 06. Fuck Kenny Rogers.

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

Man, I totally forgot about that walk-off walk.

eric k

The worst part about that walk? IT WAS NOT EVEN CLOSE

Kevin

IMO< ROgers cheated throughout the 06 postseason.

http://fendersonandhampton.com Cuso

I remember the parade in ’96. Something always seemed awkward to me in the Canyon of Heroes that Kenny Rogers was perched atop the float (higher than everyone else) and waving the flag.

Just didn’t seem right.

Comrade Al

It wasn’t a white flag, was it?

Yankeegirl49

Rogers was my MOST hated Yankee ever…until Carl Pavano came along.

http://www.jamessmythbroadcast.com James Smyth

June 30, 1997

I was at the first Yanks/Braves game since the ’96 World Series. Pettitte against Glavine traded zeroes into the fifth. Andy took a liner off his calf, but got through the inning. Pettitte had to be taken out though and in comes Kenny Rogers as everyone was booing him mercilessly as he jogged from the bullpen. Rogers stuns the world by putting up four shutout innings and eventually the Yanks put two on with two out in the tenth with the game still scoreless. Luis Sojo bounced one up the middle to bring in Joe Girardi with the winning run.